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could be profitably produced if the requisite arrangements 

 were made, as the Asun {Pentaptera tomentosa), on 

 which the worm thrives best, is found abundantly every- 

 where. The numbers, however, of the people who cultivate 

 Tusser are small, and these numbers are yearly decreasing 

 as the jungles are cleared and the distance between the 

 village sites and the jungles increases. The cultivator 

 requires that the trees on which the worms are fed should 

 be constantly watched, and superstition adds to the 

 difficulty of the cultivator by insisting that no one can 

 hope to cultivate Tusser worms and reap profit from the 

 cultivation, while maintaining his own health and that of 

 his family, without submitting to a long series of ascetic 

 ordinances during the whole time of watching the worms. 

 If he fails in doing this, the anger of the gods will in- 

 evitably destroy him and all belonging to him. As very 

 few of these people will ever consent to live in houses 

 separated by any great distance from their nearest 

 neighbours, it invariably happens that the cultivators find 

 out, as cultivation extends and the area of cleared land 

 between the village and the forest increases, that culti- 

 vation is easier and quite as profitable work as Tusser 

 growing with its concomitant annoyances, and so he gives 

 up Tusser and takes to cultivation instead. Of course, if 

 they kept a large number of the Tusser-feeding trees near 

 the village they might contrive both ; but this they do not 

 do, as their great object is to get rid of every cover near 

 the village within which wild beasts can hide, and the 

 universal practice, therefore, is to cut down every tree 

 and leave the cultivated land totally unshaded and open. 

 The increase of population, and the yearly increasing area 

 of forest cleared away, therefore tend to lessen the culti- 

 vation of Tusser, and it is not possible to increase the 

 production to meet a large demand except by inducing 

 the cultivators to betake themselves to uncleared forests, 

 or else to utilise the partially cleared lands for the 

 cultivation by planting fresh trees and preventing the 

 destruction of those still left. As to the first plan it will 

 be very difficult to carry out, as almost all the best 

 cultivable lands have been already cleared, or are in 

 process of clearance, so that the untouched forests mostly 

 consist of that grown on rocky hill sides where land 

 could not be profitably cultivated. As the means of 

 communication throughout the country are too imperfect 

 to allow of provisions being brought from a distance 



